Ruby Forum Ruby > Timeout errors using Net::HTTP on Windows

Hi all,

I'm having a problem here running some file upload code on Windows. I've
installed Ruby 1.8.6 from the one-click installer on Windows 2000 Server
in VMware and on real hardware with Windows XP. The client, when running
on Windows, always times/errors out no matter what. Here's the error:

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2094:in `error!': 408 "Request Timeout
" (Net::HTTPServerException)
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2103:in `value'
        from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
        from put_client.rb:20:in `upload_file'
        from put_client.rb:30

Here is the client code that is causing the problems:

<client>
require 'net/https'

def upload_file url, file
  uri = URI.parse url
  http = Net::HTTP.new uri.host, uri.port
  if uri.scheme == 'https'
    http.use_ssl = true
    http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
  end

  if file.respond_to? :read
    file.rewind
    stream = file
    length = File.size file.path
  else
    stream = File.open file
    length = File.size file
  end

  http.start do
    req                 = Net::HTTP::Put.new uri.path
    req.body_stream     = stream
    req.content_length  = length
    resp = http.request req
    resp.value
  end
end

if __FILE__ == $0
  upload_file "http://localhost:8443/junk", ARGV.shift
end
</client>

Here is some server code I was using to test:

<server>
require 'webrick'

s = WEBrick::HTTPServer.new(:Port => 8443)

class PutServlet < WEBrick::HTTPServlet::AbstractServlet
   def do_PUT(req, res)
     res['Content-Type'] = "text/html"
     res.body = "Uploaded #{req.body}"
   end
end

s.mount("/", PutServlet)
trap("INT"){ s.shutdown }
s.start
</server>

This only happens on Windows and it happens irrespective of the web
server involved. I've tried this on Mac OS X (WEBrick and nginx) and it
works fine. Running the client on Windows, though, I've tried this
against WEBrick and nginx and both exhibit the same behavior when
running the client from Windows.

Any ideas? Thanks.

--
Toby DiPasquale

Toby DiPasquale wrote:
> I'm having a problem here running some file upload code on Windows. I've
> installed Ruby 1.8.6 from the one-click installer on Windows 2000 Server
> in VMware and on real hardware with Windows XP. The client, when running
> on Windows, always times/errors out no matter what. Here's the error:
> 
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2094:in `error!': 408 "Request Timeout
> " (Net::HTTPServerException)
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2103:in `value'
>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
>         from put_client.rb:20:in `upload_file'
>         from put_client.rb:30

This error is more indicative of what I've been seeing:

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:54:in `rbuf_fill': execution expired 
(Timeout::Error)
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:132:in `rbuf_fill'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2017:in `read_status_line'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2006:in `read_new'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1047:in `request'
        from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
        from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
        from put_client.rb:21:in `upload_file'
        from put_client.rb:31


I've been looking on the engines for answers to this issue, both before 
and after I posted, but it seems that whenever this has come up in the 
past, the query has gone unanswered or was unrelated to this particular 
problem.

--
Toby DiPasquale

Toby Dipasquale wrote:
> Toby DiPasquale wrote:
>> I'm having a problem here running some file upload code on Windows. I've
>> installed Ruby 1.8.6 from the one-click installer on Windows 2000 Server
>> in VMware and on real hardware with Windows XP. The client, when running
>> on Windows, always times/errors out no matter what. Here's the error:
>> 
>> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2094:in `error!': 408 "Request Timeout
>> " (Net::HTTPServerException)
>>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2103:in `value'
>>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
>>         from put_client.rb:20:in `upload_file'
>>         from put_client.rb:30
> 
> This error is more indicative of what I've been seeing:
> 
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:54:in `rbuf_fill': execution expired 
> (Timeout::Error)
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:56:in `timeout'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:132:in `rbuf_fill'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2017:in `read_status_line'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2006:in `read_new'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1047:in `request'
>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>         from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
>         from put_client.rb:21:in `upload_file'
>         from put_client.rb:31
> 
> 
> I've been looking on the engines for answers to this issue, both before 
> and after I posted, but it seems that whenever this has come up in the 
> past, the query has gone unanswered or was unrelated to this particular 
> problem.

For posterity: as described and discussed here:

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/229801

it turns out that threads and I/O don't mix in the One-Click Installer 
at this time. Neither, apparently, do they mix in the MinGW builds I 
made. Cygwin is not an option for me, so I will have to switch to a 
different language. Thanks anyway.

--
Toby DiPasquale

On 4/17/07, Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote:
>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>   uri = URI.parse url
>   else
>   end
> require 'webrick'
> s.mount("/", PutServlet)
> Any ideas? Thanks.
You could try something like:
def method
  begin
   response = Timeout::timeout(5) {   Net::(whatever u want from NET 
Class) }
   ...
  rescue Timeout::Error
    puts 'Timeout!!!'
    ....
  end
end

Hope it helps you!

Emilio Tagua wrote:
> On 4/17/07, Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote:
>>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>>   uri = URI.parse url
>>   else
>>   end
>> require 'webrick'
>> s.mount("/", PutServlet)
>> Any ideas? Thanks.
> You could try something like:
> def method
>   begin
>    response = Timeout::timeout(5) {   Net::(whatever u want from NET 
> Class) }
>    ...
>   rescue Timeout::Error
>     puts 'Timeout!!!'
>     ....
>   end
> end
> 
> Hope it helps you!

This would not help as the problem it the use of the timeout module in 
the first place. The net/protocol module already wraps the call in a 
Timeout::timeout() call and this is the source of the issue. That call 
spawns a Ruby thread to enforce the timeout and the combination of the 
thread use and I/O is what is triggering the problem. In any case, I've 
already rewritten the code in Python and it works fine on all platforms. 
Thanks anyway.

--
Toby DiPasquale

Well, I'm no expert, and I certainly wasn't going to learn another 
language, so I decided to do some tests because this was a problem for 
me too.

I went into protocol.rb, to the rbuf_fill method (where it actually 
starts the timeout thread).

the code there was

def rbuf_fill
      timeout(@read_timeout)  {
        @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
      }
end

now timeout takes 2 parameters - a time in seconds(?) and an exception 
class to raise (defaults to Error).

When I changed the code to the following, it started to work for me. 
New code:

def rbuf_fill
      timeout(@read_timeout,ProtocolError) {
        @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
      }
end

Obviously this is not exactly extensively tested - but an interesting 
results.

Marcin


Toby Dipasquale wrote:
> Emilio Tagua wrote:
>> On 4/17/07, Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote:
>>>         from put_client.rb:25:in `upload_file'
>>>   uri = URI.parse url
>>>   else
>>>   end
>>> require 'webrick'
>>> s.mount("/", PutServlet)
>>> Any ideas? Thanks.
>> You could try something like:
>> def method
>>   begin
>>    response = Timeout::timeout(5) {   Net::(whatever u want from NET 
>> Class) }
>>    ...
>>   rescue Timeout::Error
>>     puts 'Timeout!!!'
>>     ....
>>   end
>> end
>> 
>> Hope it helps you!
> 
> This would not help as the problem it the use of the timeout module in 
> the first place. The net/protocol module already wraps the call in a 
> Timeout::timeout() call and this is the source of the issue. That call 
> spawns a Ruby thread to enforce the timeout and the combination of the 
> thread use and I/O is what is triggering the problem. In any case, I've 
> already rewritten the code in Python and it works fine on all platforms. 
> Thanks anyway.
> 
> --
> Toby DiPasquale

Interesting results!!! What an understatement!! How on earth did you 
figure that out? It worked like a charm. Initially my problem was just 
that the HTTP request took FOREVER... then i started randomly getting 
the timeout errors mentioned above. I went into the net/protocol.rb file 
and made this change and voila!. Not only did the errors go away, but 
the request takes literally 1/30th of the time it did before it 
eventually got the data or even timed out.. Marcin Coles, you are the 
genius of the day! Thank you!

Marcin Coles wrote:
> Well, I'm no expert, and I certainly wasn't going to learn another 
> language, so I decided to do some tests because this was a problem for 
> me too.
> 
> I went into protocol.rb, to the rbuf_fill method (where it actually 
> starts the timeout thread).
> 
> the code there was
> 
> def rbuf_fill
>       timeout(@read_timeout)  {
>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>       }
> end
> 
> now timeout takes 2 parameters - a time in seconds(?) and an exception 
> class to raise (defaults to Error).
> 
> When I changed the code to the following, it started to work for me. 
> New code:
> 
> def rbuf_fill
>       timeout(@read_timeout,ProtocolError) {
>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>       }
> end
> 
> Obviously this is not exactly extensively tested - but an interesting 
> results.
> 
> Marcin

Hey Ben
I'm glad it worked for you too, and thanks for the compliment.  I was 
happy to just get rid of those untrappable errors, so I didn't even 
profile to see whether there were any other speed improvements - 
performance is not a critical issue in my script.

Cheers,
M

Ben Brightwell wrote:
> Interesting results!!! What an understatement!! How on earth did you 
> figure that out? It worked like a charm. Initially my problem was just 
> that the HTTP request took FOREVER... then i started randomly getting 
> the timeout errors mentioned above. I went into the net/protocol.rb file 
> and made this change and voila!. Not only did the errors go away, but 
> the request takes literally 1/30th of the time it did before it 
> eventually got the data or even timed out.. Marcin Coles, you are the 
> genius of the day! Thank you!
> 
> Marcin Coles wrote:
>> Well, I'm no expert, and I certainly wasn't going to learn another 
>> language, so I decided to do some tests because this was a problem for 
>> me too.
>> 
>> I went into protocol.rb, to the rbuf_fill method (where it actually 
>> starts the timeout thread).
>> 
>> the code there was
>> 
>> def rbuf_fill
>>       timeout(@read_timeout)  {
>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>       }
>> end
>> 
>> now timeout takes 2 parameters - a time in seconds(?) and an exception 
>> class to raise (defaults to Error).
>> 
>> When I changed the code to the following, it started to work for me. 
>> New code:
>> 
>> def rbuf_fill
>>       timeout(@read_timeout,ProtocolError) {
>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>       }
>> end
>> 
>> Obviously this is not exactly extensively tested - but an interesting 
>> results.
>> 
>> Marcin

Hi,

Thanks a lot... I was struck with this problem ... now I have no 
problem.

But in my project I have lot of different web pages to scrap, is 
anything possible to tweak so that responses are fast ?

Raghu

Ben Brightwell wrote:
> Interesting results!!! What an understatement!! How on earth did you 
> figure that out? It worked like a charm. Initially my problem was just 
> that the HTTP request took FOREVER... then i started randomly getting 
> the timeout errors mentioned above. I went into the net/protocol.rb file 
> and made this change and voila!. Not only did the errors go away, but 
> the request takes literally 1/30th of the time it did before it 
> eventually got the data or even timed out.. Marcin Coles, you are the 
> genius of the day! Thank you!
> 
> Marcin Coles wrote:
>> Well, I'm no expert, and I certainly wasn't going to learn another 
>> language, so I decided to do some tests because this was a problem for 
>> me too.
>> 
>> I went into protocol.rb, to the rbuf_fill method (where it actually 
>> starts the timeout thread).
>> 
>> the code there was
>> 
>> def rbuf_fill
>>       timeout(@read_timeout)  {
>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>       }
>> end
>> 
>> now timeout takes 2 parameters - a time in seconds(?) and an exception 
>> class to raise (defaults to Error).
>> 
>> When I changed the code to the following, it started to work for me. 
>> New code:
>> 
>> def rbuf_fill
>>       timeout(@read_timeout,ProtocolError) {
>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>       }
>> end
>> 
>> Obviously this is not exactly extensively tested - but an interesting 
>> results.
>> 
>> Marcin

Hi Raghu,

Since this weird Net timeout issue has a solution now, I'd recommend 
that you spin out a series of threads to scrape your websites. That way, 
even if each thread spends a long time waiting on Net:HTTP, you still 
have lots of other threads working on other sites - aggregate wait time 
goes way down if you have 100 simultaneous HTTP requests all waiting on 
different sites. Be careful not to have too many threads request from 
the same site at the same time - not only is this bad manners but some 
systems will block you instantly if you do this.

Pragprog guys have a good little tutorial on threading which even 
includes some info on net requests (though be sure to make the changes 
described above for execution expired issues first):

http://www.rubycentral.com/book/tut_threads.html

Steve

Raghu Kumar wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks a lot... I was struck with this problem ... now I have no 
> problem.
> 
> But in my project I have lot of different web pages to scrap, is 
> anything possible to tweak so that responses are fast ?
> 
> Raghu
> 
> Ben Brightwell wrote:
>> Interesting results!!! What an understatement!! How on earth did you 
>> figure that out? It worked like a charm. Initially my problem was just 
>> that the HTTP request took FOREVER... then i started randomly getting 
>> the timeout errors mentioned above. I went into the net/protocol.rb file 
>> and made this change and voila!. Not only did the errors go away, but 
>> the request takes literally 1/30th of the time it did before it 
>> eventually got the data or even timed out.. Marcin Coles, you are the 
>> genius of the day! Thank you!
>> 
>> Marcin Coles wrote:
>>> Well, I'm no expert, and I certainly wasn't going to learn another 
>>> language, so I decided to do some tests because this was a problem for 
>>> me too.
>>> 
>>> I went into protocol.rb, to the rbuf_fill method (where it actually 
>>> starts the timeout thread).
>>> 
>>> the code there was
>>> 
>>> def rbuf_fill
>>>       timeout(@read_timeout)  {
>>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>>       }
>>> end
>>> 
>>> now timeout takes 2 parameters - a time in seconds(?) and an exception 
>>> class to raise (defaults to Error).
>>> 
>>> When I changed the code to the following, it started to work for me. 
>>> New code:
>>> 
>>> def rbuf_fill
>>>       timeout(@read_timeout,ProtocolError) {
>>>         @rbuf << @io.sysread(1024)
>>>       }
>>> end
>>> 
>>> Obviously this is not exactly extensively tested - but an interesting 
>>> results.
>>> 
>>> Marcin